Baldwin peaking at right time

The idea was always to outlast everybody – to wax as others would wane and to keep the other team on its heels.

Early this winter, head coach Darius Burton had said that his Baldwin boys’ basketball team intended to wear out its foes, using a two-way pressure game designed to wither opponents.

Heading into the regular season’s last week, the rest of Conference AA-2 knows only too well that the first-place Bruins – who at 7-0 in conference are closing in on a league-title three-peat – were not overreaching with this strategy.  

“We’ve been wearing teams down with our full-court press, and then in the half-court we keep trying to make them uncomfortable; we never stop,” said Burton, whose club is in a tussle with AA-1 leader Uniondale (9-0, 15-1) for top seed in the Class AA playoffs starting Feb. 14. “At halftime we make adjustments, mostly defensive, and these kids digest it and go out and make it happen. The third quarter’s been our quarter.”

Averaging 61.2 points per game, Baldwin’s league-leading offense has scored almost a fifth more points during second halves of games than it has before intermission (489-422) – even while resting starters during blowouts. Meanwhile Baldwin (12-4 overall) has given up just 49.6 points per contest – a shade less stingy than Port Washington’s conference-best 46.

“I always say our offense comes off our defense,” Burton said. “We press, get stops, cause mistakes and get opportunities. We’ve been able to turn that defense into points for us.”

The Bruins’ points chiefly have come from two sources – senior Lance Henry, a first-year forward who has taken the team lead in scoring averaging 12.7 points a game, and second-year senior guard Kamani Jones (12.1 ppg), whose 45 3-pointers are a conference high.

“I always knew Lance would become a top scorer,” Burton said. “He patiently waited for his time to come, and now he’s taking advantage of it. Kamani put in a lot of practice doing what he does best, which is shooting the three. Teams have to key on him now, which opens up driving lanes for other guys.”

Henry and Jones each had a team-high 14 points – with three and four 3-ponters respectively – in Baldwin’s final nonleague matchup, a 66-57 road win against A-1 leader Long Beach Feb. 1, which snapped the Marines’ 13-game win streak. True to form, the Bruins used a 21-12 third quarter to put Long Beach in the rearview for good.

Three league contests remain for Baldwin, whose magic number is two to clinch a third straight conference championship. With the aid of a Port Washington (5-2 in AA-2) loss, the Bruins could clinch as early as Feb. 4 with a win against visiting East Meadow (4-4), owner of the league’s No. 2 offense (59.7 ppg.)

“So far we’ve done what we set out to do, but we still have to take care of these next three games,” Burton said. “We’re getting stronger and starting to play our best ball down the stretch. That’s just what we’d hoped to do.”